What is Forgiveness?"So forgiveness can transform my life, huh?" Yep! It can. It was probably the very first spiritual tool that I used on my journey to wholeness. What I found was that walking around angry at people was actually tying up energy that could be used to create what I wanted in my life. I was tired from my lack of forgiving. It took work to be mad! Forgiveness is one of the most powerful attributes of the Goddess. She teaches us that forgiving is an essential act in order for us to experience the peace, love and joy that we desire. It is so amazing but when I think about it, the peace, love and joy are always there. It is the anger and lack of forgiving that mask them creating an illusion that we are in need of peace, love and joy.
SO WHAT IS FORGIVENESS? Let me first start out by saying that I am not into that forgive and forget approach. No. My approach to forgiving is radical in nature because it leads me to an amazing place: the knowledge that everything happened the way that it was supposed to and that there is really nothing to forgive. Okay, before you move on to another page, let me explain. I have had so many situations in my life where I ended up hurt and confused. I felt as if these people had done something to me or taken something away. I truly felt like I had been done wrong and in some instances was the victim of an evil person. Oftentimes I felt hurt, angry and that the other person needed to make amends for their wrong doing. Can you relate to any of this? Well, what ended up happening is that these feelings of hurt, anger and needing an apology became blocked energy within my body, mind and spirit. There were even times when I would replay these scenarios and feel all the hurt and pain as if it were going on in that moment. As I delved deeper into my spiritual journey, I learned that one of the most powerful tools that we all have in our repertoire is forgiveness. I decided that I had nothing to lose and everything to gain by forgiving those who had hurt me because anything had to be better than unforgiveness. What happened over time was I began to realize that each and every person and situation had caused me to do some serious soul searching within myself that led me to a place where I was grateful for what had happened. I could see how I had benefited and grown from the experience and also how I was better able to help others. What I also came to understand is that I did not forgive the other person for them, I forgave them for me. This is key. Because oftentimes we feel that when we forgive, essentially we are doing so for the person who hurt us. It appears that they stand most to benefit from our moving past the actions that led to our hurt and pain. But, true forgiveness is independent of the other person knowing that you have forgiven them or if they have any remorse whatsoever. WHAT DOES THE GODDESS HAVE TO SAY?
When we think about Maat/Lakshmi, the Goddess of Truth, she teaches us that first of all there is a big picture and that all of the things that happen to us, "good" or "bad" fit into the bigger picture of our lives. At times this can be a challenging way of viewing past infractions especially when we think of children and other populations of people who really were innocent victims. However, what I have found to be true in many instances is that lack of radical forgiveness often times leaves the hurt individual reliving the pain or storing it their body temple. Many people end up with depression or a physical disease. The key is to move past the stored negative energy standing not as a victim but the powerful Goddess that you are. You see the reason for our coming into the physical plane is large. For every soul that has chosen to come here, there are lessons to learn. In order for us to facilitate this learning, we create situations to help make us aware of our need for growth and evolution. If we did not do this then we would have no need to grow and change. Based on my belief system, these lessons that we are in need of learning are so much larger than this lifetime. These lessons are designed to help us discover and live the ultimate truth: We are Goddess in human form. There is one more critical piece to this type of forgiveness. And that is that by design, we do not remember that we have decided to learn these lessons. We totally forget and continue to create situation after situation after situation where we receive the same hurt in different ways from different people. But it is all in Divine Order and for our higher good. LET'S GIVE FORGIVENESS A TRY.... Think about it. Right now stop and think about the past hurts, the situations that make you feel that tension and hurt. If you take the time to see what the under current is of each of those situations, you may find an interesting pattern. You may find your need to have the love that your parents did not give to you. You may determine that you enter into relationships that leave you feeling unworthy because you feel unworthy. There are so many messages in our actions and patterns. And that is why this higher level of forgiveness is essential to healing. When we think about the fact that we actually chose to be in this relationship or have that experience to fulfill an unmet need or have experiences that support our belief system, then it leaves us in an empowered place. It is empowering because we realize that nobody did anything to us. We come to realize that WE ARE NOT VICTIMS!!!!! We are powerful beings with no limits to our power. I came to use this type of healing through my spiritual studies. However, I have found a book that you can use to learn about true forgiveness and actually apply it to your life. It is called Radical Forgiveness by Colin Tipping. I would not recommend it if it were not life changing for me. The more you forgive, the more easily you can open yourself to connect with the Goddess within you. Forgiveness helps to remove the veil of illusion that we could ever be separated from the love of the Goddess.
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